Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith, the former Chief Whip, is the first woman to lead the
225-year-old Home Office. Recently lightened of the responsibility for
prisons and probation, which have moved to the Ministry of Justice, the Home
Secretary's main jobs now are to control the Government's security,
immigration and counter-terrorism policies. Ms Smith became MP for Redditch,
Inkberrow, Feckenham and Cookhill in 1997 and has served as a junior
minister in the Department for Health and the DTI as well as a brief stint
as Minister for Schools in 2005.
David Miliband: Foreign Secretary
Precocious and intellectual, Mr Miliband, 41, is Britain's second youngest
Foreign Secretary and has taken another step on his rapid rise through the
ministerial ranks since becoming an MP just six years ago. He was Tony
Blair's head of policy until he won his South Shields seat in 2001 and has
served as Schools Minister and was urged to run for the leadership against
Mr Brown on the basis of his impressive performance as Environment
Secretary, the office he held since 2005.
Alistair Darling: Chancellor of the Exchequer
Mr Brown has bequeathed the Treasury to Alistair Darling, the Government's
most trusted technocrat. Mr Darling has gathered a reputation as a calm,
error-free politician with his continuous service in the Cabinet since
Labour's election victory in 1997. Since 1998, he has been, in turn,
Secretary of State for Social Security, Work and Pensions, Transport,
Scotland and, until today, Trade and Industry. A former barrister and
"remarkably normal" student, Mr Darling has useful Treasury experience,
serving as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1997 and spokesman on the
Treasury from 1992 to 1997.
Alan Johnson: Health Secretary
The profile of Mr Johnson, who as a young postman delivered the mail to Gordon
Brown's house in Fife, has grown steadily since he joined the Cabinet as
Work and Pensions Secretary in 2004. Unfussy, collegiate and seen as a
valuable peacemaker between the Brown and Blair camps, he narrowly lost to
Harriet Harman in the deputy leadership race. With the Department for
Education and Skills split in two, Mr Johnson has been given another key
domestic brief: the Department of Health, where Patricia Hewitt was felt to
have lost the trust of the NHS over recent reforms and budget cuts.
Jack Straw: Justice Secretary
A return to day-to-day government for Mr Straw, who becomes the new Minister
for Justice, replacing Lord Falconer, and leaves his job as Leader of the
House. A former Home Secretary who succeeded Robin Cook as Foreign Secretary
in 2001, Mr Straw is now one of the most experienced members of and familiar
faces in Mr Brown's Cabinet and a trusted advisor. He managed the new Prime
Minister's uncontested leadership campaign. Has emerged as a voice in the
debate about Britain's multiculturalism with comments about the wearing of
Islamic full-face veils.
Baroness Scotland, Attorney General
The new Attorney General is Baroness Patricia Scotland of Asthal who, as a
black woman in the white male worlds of the judiciary and the Lords, is used
to making firsts. She was the first black woman to become a QC, and then a
government minister and today became the first woman to serve as the
Government's chief legal adviser since the office was created by Edward II
in 1315. Baroness Scotland was elevated to the Lords in 1997 in the midst of
a successful career as a family and public law barrister. She joined the
Government as a Foreign Office minister but since 2001 has worked in the
Lord Chancellor's department and the Home Office.
Ed Balls: Children, Schools and Families Secretary
Mr Brown's long-serving economics adviser in the Treasury the Schools and
Children Secretary in the newly divided Department for Education and Skills.
Until today, Mr Balls was Economic Secretary to the Treasury after joining
parliament as an MP in 2005. A former leader writer for the Financial Times,
he is considered wildly intelligent and helped Mr Brown prepare his ten
budget speeches. Married to Yvette Cooper, the housing minister whose post
was made a full Cabinet role today, making him part of the first married
couple ever to serve in the Cabinet.
Yvette Cooper: Housing Minister
Another former journalist, Ms Cooper joined parliament in the Labour landslide
of 1997 after working at The Independent and beginning her political career
as an advisor to Labour's shadow Treasury team in the early 1990s. She also
worked on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992. In Government, Ms
Cooper has served as a parliamentary under secretary for the Lord
Chancellor, the Deputy Prime Minister and in the Department of Health. In
2005 she was made Minister for Housing and has been blamed for many of the
problems surrounding the Government's widely-criticised Home Information
Packs (HIPS).
John Denham: Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary
Mr Denham takes charge of the second half of the freshly-split Department for
Education, with control of higher education and adult learning. Elected as
MP for Southampton in 1992, he served as a minister in the departments of
Social Security and Health before being given responsibility for the police
as a Home Office minister in 2001. He resigned over the Iraq War. Since
2005, Mr Denham's profile has risen with his chairmanship of the Home
Affairs select committee, from which he has been unafraid to criticise the
Government.
Douglas Alexander: International Development Secretary
Mr Alexander is a young Scottish Brownite who has been given the job of
winning the next general election for Labour. Today he was also made the
Secretary of State for International Development, a move seen as a sign of
Mr Brown's intention to make international aid an important part of his
premiership rather than a demotion or sideways move for Mr Alexander, who
was made Transport Secretary last year. A lawyer by training, who was
educated in Scotland, Canada and the US, Mr Alexander, 39, became an MP in
1997 and has served in the Cabinet Office, DTI and the Foreign Office, where
he was Minister for Europe from 2005-6.
Ruth Kelly, Transport Secretary
Another big job for Ms Kelly, the young but journeyed minister who was heading
for the highest ranks of Government until a difficult spell as Secretary of
State for Education. In 2006, she was made the Secretary of State for Local
Government and Communities, the department raised from John Prescott's old
office. Still only 39, Ms Kelly's intellectual power was spotted by the Bank
of England and Mr Brown when she was an economics correspondent at The
Guardian. A devout Catholic and a member of the conservative Opus Dei
movement, Ms Kelly's new job will help her avoid delicate questions that
faced her as communities secretary.
Hazel Blears: Communities and Local Government Secretary
The optimistic Blairite who did badly in the deputy leadership contest has
been rewarded with Ruth Kelly's old job. Ms Blears, the chair of the Labour
Party, had been minister without portfolio since leaving the Home Office in
2006, where she was responsible for policing, community safety and
counter-terrorism. Ms Blears was elected as the MP for Salford in 1997 and
served under Alan Milburn in the Department of Health -- with a brief
sojourn as Chief Secretary to the Treasury -- until 2002. She is a keen
rugby league supporter.
James Purnell: Culture Secretary
A former head of corporate planning at the BBC, Mr Purnell was Tony Blair's
special adviser on culture, media and sport when Labour came to power in
1997 and, under Chris Smith's leadership at the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, made most of Britain's national galleries and museums free.
He became an MP in 2001 and has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Ruth Kelly before becoming the Minister for Media and Tourism in May 2005.
As Culture Secretary, he will leave Tessa Jowell free to direct the staging
of the Olympics in 2012, although she will not have a seat in the Cabinet.
Hilary Benn: Environment Secretary
The affable, carefully-spoken former Secretary of State for International
Development was tipped as a possible contender for the Foreign Office.
Instead Mr Benn, 52, has been chosen to follow in David Miliband's footsteps
with the job of Environment Secretary, considered a key brief under Mr
Brown. His department will also take charge of Britain's energy policy,
which has been transferred from the slimmed-down Department for Trade and
Industry. His international experience will help him in negotiations over
climate change.
John Hutton: Business and Enterprise Secretary
Mr Blair's Work and Pension's Secretary has been given charge of the
newly-formed Ministry for Business and Enterprise, the successor to the DTI.
Mr Hutton was a senior law lecturer at the University of Northumbria before
becoming an MP in 1992. He sat on the select committee for Home Affairs
before Labour came to power in 1997, at which point he served under Margaret
Beckett at the DTI, before serving as a junior minister in the Department of
Health from 1999 to 2005. In 2005, he joined the Cabinet as Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster.
Ed Miliband: Cabinet Office
Mr Miliband joins his older (still young) brother in the Cabinet as Secretary
of State for the Cabinet Office at the centre of Mr Brown's Government. Just
37 and an MP since 2005, Mr Miliband is one of the few ministers who is
trusted to brief the media on Mr Brown's behalf. Before joining parliament,
he worked for Mr Brown in the Opposition and followed in the footsteps of Ed
Balls as a special adviser at the Treasury. In 2006 he was made
parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office in charge of policy for the
voluntary sector.
And the rest...
The former Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, is Mr Brown's Chief Whip;
Peter Hain has moved from the Northern Ireland Office to become Work and
Pensions Secretary; Andy Burnham is Chief Secretary to the Treasury;
the Leader of the Lords is Baroness Ashton; Des Browne is the only
minister to stay exactly where his, in the Ministry of Defence,
although he is now Scotland Minister as well.
Goodbye...
Patricia Hewitt resigned as Health Secretary last night to spend more
time to her constituency and family. Baroness Amos is leaving the
Government to become the EU’s Special Representative to the African Union. Margaret
Beckett, the former Foreign Secretary, gave up her job reluctantly. Lord
Falconer has also stepped down because many wanted his job, the Minister
of Justice, to be held by an MP. Ian McCartney, the Foreign Office
minister, has also left the Cabinet, despite being asked to stay.
We shall see what type of change Mr. Brown brings to foreign policy. The Foreign Commonwealth Office has this Draconian attitude towards "OVERSEAS TERRITORRIES" that only Attila could love. The FCO needs a complete cleaning out. New people with new ideas should be put in place. FOC already loss a Hugh court case on forcing "ORDER IN COUNCIL" down the throats of these small helpless countries that has major repercussions at the UN and EU that is embarrassing to the western world but not the FCO. I hope Mr. Brown will change this situation.
Albert Jackson, Newark, Delaware USA
I trust that any of the above who do not come up with the goods, that the PM will nor sherk his duty to the country to sack any one of them.
I await the reports of the parliment being respected and allowed to debate issues of importance to we the people.
What I want to see is the old fox give the young pup a run for his money on midday wednesdays.
Mr Brown you can B&Q it.
Bill kirkham, Blackpool, UK
What have poor commuters done wrong to deserve Ruth Kelly. The only consolation is that she is not Hazel Blears.
David S, London,
Bonne chance et soyez moins hargneux envers la France.
jacques, Marseille, France
Listening to George Osbourne's attempts to portray the cabinet overhall as the "same tired old faces" reminded me of how immature and shallow the opposition now sound. The "big beasts" of the Tory party may be leaving the stage, but their replacements sound like smart alec schoolboys who's only purpose is to charm / iritate* (*delete where appropriate) the electorate. When there appears to be a complete lack of credible or realistic alternatives to the present administration then the voter apathy that accompanies elections in this country is hardly suprising.
Philip Webster, Leigh. Lancashire,